I ran into a problem recently where I was unable to boot into any of the images I had made from any Mac. I have NetRestore and one NetBoot image, but not one of my Macs could get to it. After many failed attempts, I finally tricked it into letting me boot. Here's how.
The problem actually has to do with the way that NetBoot filters computers. It used to be that you could turn filtering on and off, but now, it is not so simple. In the Image Properties window, you have the option to either all model types, or just the ones selected from a given list.
However, MAC filtering is different, you can't simply say allow all. The default selection is to allow only only those computers with the matching MAC addresses in the list below and deny others. This is what is preventing computers from being able to boot. And unless you are interested in manually entering in every new MAC address, it is impractical.
The second option is to deny only those computers in the list below and allow all others. It would be easy to select the second option, however, Lion Server has a bug that prevents you from selecting Deny Only if the list is empty. If you simply select it and save, it reverts to the default allow only option.
To get around this bug, enter in a MAC address of 00:00:00:00:00:00 and then select the Deny Only option. Save the changes and now all of your computers should be able to boot to any images you have.
Note: you'll have to make this change for every image.
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one.]
The problem actually has to do with the way that NetBoot filters computers. It used to be that you could turn filtering on and off, but now, it is not so simple. In the Image Properties window, you have the option to either all model types, or just the ones selected from a given list.
However, MAC filtering is different, you can't simply say allow all. The default selection is to allow only only those computers with the matching MAC addresses in the list below and deny others. This is what is preventing computers from being able to boot. And unless you are interested in manually entering in every new MAC address, it is impractical.
The second option is to deny only those computers in the list below and allow all others. It would be easy to select the second option, however, Lion Server has a bug that prevents you from selecting Deny Only if the list is empty. If you simply select it and save, it reverts to the default allow only option.
To get around this bug, enter in a MAC address of 00:00:00:00:00:00 and then select the Deny Only option. Save the changes and now all of your computers should be able to boot to any images you have.
Note: you'll have to make this change for every image.
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one.]
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